Potter's Wheel

In the Near East the wheel was first used in the production of pottery in the fourth millennium BCE. Pottery that was made with a wheel was found at Troy in Asia Minor dating to 2500 BCE. The first literary reference in Greek to the potter's wheel occurs in Homer's Iliad (18.599-601) (1).

Greek potters typically used a wheel that was two or three feet across and was usually made of wood, terracotta, or stone. There would be a notch in the center on the bottom side of the wheel into which a stationary point was inserted. The wheel would be rotated around this point by hand (2).

Author: Jeff Gingras

(1) J.V. Noble, The Techniques of Painted Attic Pottery . (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd.1988): 21; J.V. Noble, "An Overview of the Technology of Greek and Related Pottery ." Ancient Greek and Related Pottery: Proceedings of the International Vase Symposium in Amsterdam, 12 -15 April 1984 . Ed. H.A.G. Brijder ,( Amsterdam: Allard Pierson 1984); Toby Schreiber, Athenian Vase Construction: A Potter's Analysis . (Malibu: The J. Paul Getty Museum 1999).

(2) J.V. Noble, The Techniques of Painted Attic Pottery . (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd.1988): 21; J.V. Noble, "An Overview of the Technology of Greek and Related Pottery ." Ancient Greek and Related Pottery: Proceedings of the International Vase Symposium in Amsterdam, 12 -15 April 1984 . Ed. H.A.G. Brijder , (Amsterdam: Allard Pierson 1984); Toby Schreiber, Athenian Vase Construction: A Potter's Analysis . (Malibu: The J. Paul Getty

Museum 1999).